188

THE DECLINE AND FALL'

CHAP.

XIX.

and de-clared C«.tar,

A. D. 355,Nov. C.

deeds, that sacred and immortal name, theemperor gave his colleague the strongest assu-rances of a friendship which should never beimpaired by time, nor interrupted by their se-paration into the most distant climates. Assoon as the speech was ended, the troops, as atoken of applause, clashed their shields againsttheir knees ; ro while the officers who surround-ed the tribunal expressed, with decent reserve,their sense of the merits of the representativeof Constantius .

The two princes returned to the palace in the’ same chariot; and during the slow procession,Julian repeated to himself a verse of his fa-vourite Homer, which he might equally applyto his fortune and to his fears.” The four-and-tvventy days which the Caesar spent at Milanafter his investiture, and the first months of hisGallic reign, were devoted to a splendid, butsevere captivity; nor could the acquisition ofhonour compensate for the loss of freedom. 0His steps were watched; his correspondence

m Militares omnes horrendo fragore scuta genibus illidentes; quodest prosperitatis indicium plenum; nam contra cum hastis clypei fe-

rinntur, irae documentum est et doloris. Ammianus adds, with a

nice distinction, Fumqne nt potion reverentia servaretur, uec supramoduni laudabant nec infra quam decebat.

u EXXaCg flava t3SX», xac (xoi ga n^arain. The WOl d purple , which

Homer had used as a vague but common epithet for death, was appliedby Julian to express, very aptly, the nature and object of his own ap-prehensions.

° He represents, in the most pathetic terms (p. 277), the distress ofhis new situation. The provision for his table was however so elegantand sumptuous, that the young philosopher rejected it with disdain*Quum legeret libellum assidue, quern Coustanlius ut privignnm ad stu-dia mittens manu $u& conscripserat, pradicenter disponens quid in con-vivio Caesaris impendi deberet, Phasianum, et vulvam et sumeD exigivetult et inferri, Anmiian, Marcellio